Anger in Madrid but calm in Barcelona at extended lockdown

For the past five days, millions of people in Spain have once again been able to indulge in moments of luxury that would have been mundane routines just two months ago.

Across half the country, they have been able to meet up with friends and family, and to sit outside bars and sip a café con leche or a cold, refreshing caña (beer). But not so in Madrid or Barcelona.

On Friday the Spanish health ministry denied the Madrid regional government’s second request to join the 70% of the country in the next phase of relaxation of some of the strictest lockdown measures in Europe.

Since it denied permission for such easing last week, people in and around the capital have been unable to meet up or enjoy a physically distanced alfresco drink or meal.

The president of the Madrid region, which is governed by the conservative People’s party (PP), has railed against the ministry’s decision to leave the area in phase zero.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso accused the Socialist-led coalition government on Thursday of “taking advantage of the biggest crisis in Spain’s recent history to impose a single, dictatorial authority”.

Bombastic as her language was, the sentiment has been echoed on the streets of one of Madrid’s wealthiest and most exclusive barrios.

For the past few says, dozens of people in the city’s Salamanca neighbourhood, where the PP and the far-right Vox party took 61% of the vote in last November’s general election, have taken to the streets to demand the government’s resignation and shout, “¡Libertad!”, or “Freedom!”

The protests have raised concerns about the spread of coronavirus in the area of Spain hit hardest by the pandemic. The Madrid region has accounted for 66,005 of Spain’s 230,183 Covid-19 cases to date and 8,809 of its 27,459 deaths.

The demonstrations have been mocked online using the hashtag #CayeBorroka – a pun on the posh boy’s name Cayetano and kale borroka, the street-level campaign of violence and vandalism waged in support of the terrorist group Eta in the 1980s and 90s.

The government has defended people’s right to protest, but called on them to behave responsibly. “Everyone’s always got the right to protest and even, if only for a short time, to make a lot of loud noise,” the science minister, Pedro Duque, said. “But the only thing we need to be careful about is that we’re in an epidemic situation, and so if you’re protesting, you need to maintain distances to avoid infection.”

Things are somewhat calmer in Barcelona, which will also have to wait until at least 25 May to move to phase one. Some rural areas of Catalonia have been given the green light, but health authorities say it is still too soon and too risky to ease many of the restrictions in force in the capital and most of the surrounding province.

Alba Vergés, the Catalan health minister, said infection rates were falling throughout the region, but that she was worried more populated areas lacked the resources to follow up new cases and trace contacts.

The death rate is proportionately very high in Catalonia. Forty-two per cent of all coronavirus deaths reported in Spain on Friday occurred in the region, down from 60% on Thursday.

As a compromise, Vergés has proposed what she called “phase 0.5”. Bar and restaurant terraces would remain closed, travel would be restricted to the municipal area, and groups of 10 or more would not be allowed to meet. Hotels would stay shut.

Barcelona province is home to nearly five million of the region’s 7.5 million inhabitants, most of them concentrated in the towns that ring the capital. L’Hospitalet, home to 260,000 people to the south-west of Barcelona, has been cited as Europe’s most densely populated urban area.

Despite the lockdown setback, there has been no campaign or pot-banging protests about the decision, and most people appear to accept it with the same equanimity they have shown throughout the crisis.

“There’s just a minority, mostly young people, who aren’t sticking to the rules,” said Maria Eugenia, a Colombian who lives in L’Hospitalet.